So, I finally got around to watching this. I didn't follow any of the spoilers going around before this movie was released, so I had no idea what I was going into. I have to say I liked it a good deal more than the first one though. And oh man, did they have me fooled...I seriously thought, "Oh **** they killed off Kirk...and there's no Genesis thingamajig to bring him back!"

"Star Trek: Khan #1," released in comic-book stores Wednesday by IDW Comics, takes place right before the end of "Star Trek Into Darkness," specifically between the scene where Kirk wakes up in the hospital after "dying," and Cumberbatch's Khan is shown to be cryogenically re-frozen. The comic kicks off at the trial of Khan, with Starfleet officers showing off a picture of Montalban's Khan and asking why Cumberkhan "looks nothing like him." Khan then jumps into his backstory, in order to reveal the truth.

That's when Khan's ethnicity gets even more confusing, and writer Mike Johnson (along with "Star Trek" movie writer and story consultant on the comic Roberto Orci) pay homage not just to the movies and original series, but also Khan's original conception. In the original "Star Trek" TV series, Khan wasn't Caucasian or even Latino: He was from Northern India. In the comic, we learn that Noonien Singh was an orphan from the streets of India, kidnapped into a eugenics program and built into a super-smart super-strong super-human. By the end of the first issue of the comic, Khan has led his fellow eugenics-fueled orphans into a rebellion — but he's still very obviously Indian in heritage.

GEEK: Will the events of Star Trek Into Darkness somehow color the version of Khan we’ll see, despite the fact that it will be an earlier version?

MIKE JOHNSON: It will, but only after Khan is revived. His life takes a dramatically different course than it did in “Space Seed” and Wrath of Khan. To tease it a little bit: the circumstances of his revival affect him both physically and mentally in unexpected ways.

The next one will be like a superhero film in that there will be multiple villains. Khan and the Borg and the Dominion team up! ...Oh wait, apparently the average moviegoer is terrified by anything Trek that isn't instantly familiar to him, so the Dominion is out and a few lines of Chekhov dialog with "v" pronounced as "w" are in.

"Star Trek: Khan #1," released in comic-book stores Wednesday by IDW Comics, takes place right before the end of "Star Trek Into Darkness," specifically between the scene where Kirk wakes up in the hospital after "dying," and Cumberbatch's Khan is shown to be cryogenically re-frozen. The comic kicks off at the trial of Khan, with Starfleet officers showing off a picture of Montalban's Khan and asking why Cumberkhan "looks nothing like him." Khan then jumps into his backstory, in order to reveal the truth.

That's when Khan's ethnicity gets even more confusing, and writer Mike Johnson (along with "Star Trek" movie writer and story consultant on the comic Roberto Orci) pay homage not just to the movies and original series, but also Khan's original conception. In the original "Star Trek" TV series, Khan wasn't Caucasian or even Latino: He was from Northern India. In the comic, we learn that Noonien Singh was an orphan from the streets of India, kidnapped into a eugenics program and built into a super-smart super-strong super-human. By the end of the first issue of the comic, Khan has led his fellow eugenics-fueled orphans into a rebellion — but he's still very obviously Indian in heritage.

GEEK: Will the events of Star Trek Into Darkness somehow color the version of Khan we’ll see, despite the fact that it will be an earlier version?

MIKE JOHNSON: It will, but only after Khan is revived. His life takes a dramatically different course than it did in “Space Seed” and Wrath of Khan. To tease it a little bit: the circumstances of his revival affect him both physically and mentally in unexpected ways.

All of which is unnecessary and stupid.

I Are The Internets said:

I really don't get why they didn't ultimately kill off Khan unless the intention is to bring him back further down the road which is equally stupid.

Not really. They can have Khan as a villain anytime they want him, whereas he was killed off in "The Wrath Of Khan" and you had pale imitations of him afterwards. It's about the almighty dollar.

Hmm yeah I bought that comic this week to try it out. Reserving judgement on it until a few more issues are under its belt. Can't help but feel that if it was that interesting it would have been in the movie in the first place though.

No, the correct answer is, "Who gives a ****?" Why didn't people complain about a Latino playing an Indian? That's just as stupid, but Trek fans didn't give a damn. This isn't important in this film, because it serves no purpose and doesn't affect the story in the slightest. Perry White is black...just because. Agent J is black...just because. Electro is black...just because. Eletkra isn't Greek...just because. Bullseye is Irish...just because.

No, no, you've got it all wrong. Perry White is white, just played by a black actor, right? And Superman fans just don't give a damn. And Man of Steel is in the same continuity as the original film, right?

I'm talking in-universe. Whether or not an actor is "right" for a role is dependent on more than just political correctness or whatever side of the bed the director woke up on that day or any other out-of-universe consideration. That's why they cast Zoe Saldana for the part of Uhura instead of going with, for example, Danny DeVito.

Casting is only a convenient distraction to hide behind. Irrespective of casting, the fact remains that Khan goes from someone who was identified as Indian on sight ( in the plot ) to someone who as part of a cover identity successfully poses as a native-born white Brit ( also part of the plot ). And "just because" remains an insufficient explanation for this change.

There was nothing in the film to suggest that Khan had plastic surgery done to him. Khan was Khan, using a different name for half of the movie. Kirk, Pike and the rest had no clue as to who he was, the same way they didn't in "Space Seed". This argument would work if Ambassador Spock recognized his voice, but not his face and say to Commander Spock, that someone did something to him. This is about IDW trying to explain something that didn't need to be explained. Don't you think if it was an important plot detail, that it would have been in the film and a 3D reconstruction of the late Ricardo Montalban, put together for a side by side comparison with Benedict Cumberbatch?

Or, let me put it to you this way. When Sean Connery quit as James Bond following, "You Only Live Twice", the producers had considered writing in a plot where James Bond has plastic surgery to justify George Lazenby in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". It was ultimately decided to not go that route, but for the fans, they included a scene where Bond goes through his personal effects in his desk drawer and pull out items from the previous films that Connery did. They even did a wink and a nod joke with Lazenby saying "This never happened to the other fellow". In other words, it didn't really matter that Bond now looked different. And so on.